


the stages of steven lim falling in love

by soulas



Series: tumblr smols [7]
Category: Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, but reposting here, i know we passed new york angst months ago
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-22 18:58:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17065289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soulas/pseuds/soulas
Summary: (Spoiler alert: It's not with Andrew. Or even with a person.)





	the stages of steven lim falling in love

**Author's Note:**

> listen we were fuckin emo for a whole time

The first stage is awe. Steven walks around New York like he’s never seen a big city before, all starry-eyed and full of wonder. “I love New York!” he says excitedly. Yeah, maybe Steven falls in love too fast, maybe he’s so full of joy and love he gives it away readily, to friends and family and just anything that catches his eye. 

Like how he convinces Andrew to join his food shows (this is the third one they’ve worked on together) and how Andrew can never say no, even when his schedule says otherwise, because Steven’s enthusiasm and eagerness is just damn infectious. 

And Andrew gets it, you know. LA is where you go to follow your dreams but New York is where you go when you’ve found your dreams. And Steven has pretty much gotten everything he’s ever dreamed of and more.

Steven says, “I love New York.” But he says that about everything. “I love ice cream. I love this dog. I love you, Andrew.” He doesn’t fucking mean it. He just says it.

The second stage is continuous delight. “Andrew, look at this!” Steven says, dragging Andrew to the third landmark of the day. It’s been days of filming and Andrew’s tired as hell, and he’s been to New York countless of times, but. He can’t bring himself to say no.

“You’ve seen all this stuff online,” he points out. “There are hundreds of pictures of the Empire State Building.”

“Yeah, but,” Steven says, shading his eyes as he looks up at all 102 stories. “It’s so much cooler in real life.”

When they get back to LA, Steven won’t stop talking about New York, to the point where it gets annoying and Andrew tells him, “If you don’t shut up about how great New York is I will rightfully leave you there next time.”

“I’d love that,” Steven retorts. 

(And Andrew kind of gets it. New York is this big, sprawling legend that you see on TV and you’re like, wow. I want to go there one day. But LA’s not that bad. Andrew swears he’s not jealous of a city.)

The third stage is where Steven leaves him.

“You’re moving to New York.” It’s not a question. 

Steven smiles, and there’s only a touch of sadness in it. “Yeah! I'm super excited, it’s gonna be lit, man!”

“Well, hey,” Andrew says with a wide grin that hurts his face. “That’s awesome, man. I’m really happy for you.”

And then it’s a rush of goodbye parties and Steven leaving the office early to pack, and then one day, he’s gone.

“Hey,” Adam says. “You okay?”

Andrew exhales. “Yeah.” He’s not surprised if Adam knows. He’s not exactly the pinnacle of keeping his emotions in, and there’ve been several instances where he’s drank more than he should and he thinks he said something he shouldn’t have. 

He watches old episodes of Worth It, and even some of Worth It Lifestyle, to try and regain that feeling they shared, when they were just driving to different restaurants and eating food every day and Steven was just  _there_. Sitting next to him in the driver’s seat or smushed beside him in a single booth or sorting out their next video set-up alongside him in the office, just that physical presence.

He misses it.

-

** Bonus: A single stage of Andrew falling in love **

They’re in the office and it’s late, like really fucking late. One of those times when they’re the only ones left, just rewatching hours of footage and trying to pick out the best parts.

Well, Ryan is there too.

And somewhere in the middle of the night, he and Steven start talking and saying words like “airball” and “free throw” and “Lebron James” and also occasionally “you suck Steve.” (Andrew tunes most of this out.)

But then Ryan says something funny, and it must be really funny, because Steven just collapses into giggles.

Correction. He collapses into Andrew. and he stays there, curled over with his head in Andrew’s chest, doing that high pitched thing with his voice when he’s really happy, pulling on Andrew’s shirt and.

Andrew suddenly realizes that he wants this. He wants to make Steven laugh so hard he can’t sit up. He wants Steven pressed up against him like this every day. (He wants to drop his head and place a kiss on Steven’s cheek, it’d be so easy.)

_Oh shit_ , he realizes with a sinking feeling. _I’m in love with Steven fucking Lim._

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](https://sovnly.tumblr.com/)


End file.
